When the red flag was hoisted over the Reichstag. Victory banner over the Reichstag in Berlin

Life and Death of a Hero.

His name is Alexey Prokopyevich Berest. He would have turned 94 on March 9, 2015. Alexey Berest was born into a simple peasant family in the village of Goryaystovka, Akhtyrsky district, Sumy region, on March 9, 1921, when coals were still smoldering in some places Civil War. Prokop Nikiforovich and Kristina Vakumovna Berestov had sixteen children. But only nine of them survived the harsh years. In 1932, Alexey and his brothers and sisters were left orphans. Fortunately, in a large family there are always older children who will not let the others go to waste - the Berests had older sisters Marina and Ekaterina. It was they, after the death of their father and mother, who took upon themselves all the burdens of the “heads of the family”, managing, at the very least, to raise and educate younger relatives.
Alexei had a harsh childhood on a collective farm, when he had to work in the fields from dawn to dusk, just like adults, but he also had to study! However, although Alyosha was an inquisitive child, he never became an excellent student. And even in childhood he still had the same character! No matter how they tried to change him, no matter how many trials he endured for his perseverance and indifference to everything, he always remained unconvinced. At the age of sixteen he entered a tractor driving course. Moreover, in order to become a tractor driver, he credited himself with two extra years - young Alexei was afraid that he would not be accepted for study, citing “being too young.”

In October 1939, he volunteered to join the Red Army. Participated in the Soviet-Finnish campaign. He served in the 2nd Signal Regiment of the Leningrad Military District. Behind these dry lines of biography are hidden those qualities that are now commonly called patriotism. But Alexey Prokopievich did not like loud words, he did not like pomposity and empty nonsense, but he was not silent. His words were succinct, laconic and categorical, like autobiographical memories of those years. During the Great Patriotic War he rose from a private to deputy battalion commander for political affairs. In other words, he did not make much of a career, although he showed his personal qualities. Few people remember, but in episode 5 of the film "Liberation" Berest was played by E. Izotov. And this is not just a coincidence of the surname - the authors of the film deliberately paid tribute to a hero who was already beginning to be forgotten at that time... Berest began the war as a private - a signalman, a year later he became a squad commander, and then a party organizer of a company. In 1943, Corporal Berest was selected among the best soldiers to study at the Leningrad Military-Political School. Despite the fact that Berest did not have the required secondary education, front-line experience and positive characteristics did their job - he was accepted into the school and within a few months Berest completed an officer training course. After completing a course of study at the school, which was then stationed in Shuya, Berest was appointed deputy battalion commander for political affairs of the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division.

April 30, 1945, by order of the first commandant of the Reichstag, commander of the 756th Infantry Regiment F.M. Zinchenko, Jr. Lieutenant Berest A.P. led the combat mission of hoisting the banner of the military council of the 3rd Shock Army on the dome of the Reichstag. For this operation he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. To put it simply, he, under the cover of a company of submachine gunners I.A. Syanov, climbed onto one of the Reichstag columns at 14:30 and attached a red flag to it. But the command at least generally liked the idea, it seemed that the red flag over the column was not very impressive and the order was given to install the flag over the Reichstag dome. It should be mentioned that the building was swarming with enemy soldiers who had not even thought of laying down their arms yet.
Having rushed inside, the detachment came under heavy enemy machine-gun fire. Alexei Prokopyevich managed to hide behind a bronze statue, but the shooting was so intense that the statue’s arm was cut off. Picking up a fragment of bronze, Berest threw it towards the machine-gun point. The fire died down, apparently the enemy mistook a piece of the statue’s limb for a grenade. This moment was enough to rush forward. But the base of the flight of stairs turned out to be destroyed and of enormous height, almost two meters tall, the hero Alexey acted as a springboard - this is on his shoulders Egorov M.A. and Kantaria M.V. climbed higher. Berest was the first to go up to the attic. He very rarely spoke about the past afterwards - at first it was somehow not customary to hold meetings with schoolchildren, and then he was not particularly invited. But his memories were preserved of how they tied the Red Flag to the bronze leg of a horse with soldier’s belts. That’s exactly how Alexey Prokopyevich recalled the apogee of this operation, even with a little irony.

“The command assigned me the task of leading and ensuring the hoisting of the Victory Banner. In a swift rush, we burst into the opened passage of the central entrance of the building, the doors of which had been blown up by a grenade. At this time, with my participation, the standard bearers comrades Kantaria and Egorov fixed the army banner No. 5 on one of the columns of the central entrance to the Reichstag at 14.30 on the day of April 30,” recalled Aleksey Berest already in the sixties (quoted by Yuzhny A. So who is hoisted a banner over the Reichstag?).
On the night of May 2, 1945, on instructions from the command, dressed in the uniform of a Soviet colonel, Berest A.P. personally negotiated with the remnants of the Reichstag garrison, forcing them to surrender. Again I will try to explain what was behind this. In reality, the garrison did not intend to surrender, and agreed to negotiate with an officer of at least the rank of colonel. However, among the Soviet soldiers and officers who burst into the Reichstag, the most senior in rank was the battalion commander Stepan Neustroyev - he wore captain's shoulder straps. Stepan Neustroyev was a man of small stature and lean build, so he feared that the Nazis simply would not believe that he was a senior officer with the rank of colonel. And the hero Alexey, like no one else, was suitable for the role of a person capable of setting conditions, so he had the honor of putting on the colonel’s shoulder straps, albeit “for fun.” Captain Neustroyev went with Alexey as an assistant. Berest gave the enemy two hours to think and walked back with a firm step, without looking back. A shot was heard from behind, but Alexey continued moving. Later it turned out that the bullet had shot through his cap. For “exceptional courage and courage shown in battle” Berest A.P. was nominated for the title of Hero Soviet Union, but, as they say, Marshal Zhukov was not very fond of political instructors, and, looking at the position of the applicant for the award, he decided that the Order of the Red Banner would be enough. In May 1946, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR published a Decree “On awarding the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to officers and non-commissioned officers of the USSR Armed Forces who hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag.” Five military personnel received the highest award of the Soviet state: captain Stepan Neustroev, captain Vasily Davydov, senior lieutenant Konstantin Samsonov, sergeant Mikhail Egorov and junior sergeant Meliton Kantaria. Alexei Berest, who, as we see, played a significant role in the storming of the Reichstag, was never awarded the highest award.
Immediately after the end of the war, Alexei Berest was appointed head of the train traveling from Germany to the Soviet Union and carrying back Soviet citizens hijacked by the Germans - people who faced a difficult fate after returning to their homeland. Berest stopped on his way to his native village, where he fell ill with typhus and was admitted to a military hospital. By the way, the hospital also played an important role in the officer’s life - it was there that he met a nurse named Lyudmila, who became his faithful companion for the next years of his life.

Alexey Prokopievich completed his service in the armed forces in 1948 in Sevastopol - with the rank of senior lieutenant and as deputy chief for political affairs of the transmitting radio center of the communication center Black Sea Fleet. Then he moved to the Rostov region. Here, in the village of Pokrovskoye (today it is a regional center) was the birthplace of his wife Lyudmila Fedorovna. Police sergeant Petr Tsukanov, who at that time was the head of the bullpen of the local regional department, recalled: “Our neighbor died, the Berests moved into this hut, four of them with children. The floor is earthen, the walls are adobe, the roof is reed. The windows are near the ground. We arrived - a suitcase and a bundle of linen. Well, I could order potatoes and cabbage from the collective farm and share it with them. He was appointed head. regional film department. Sometimes he will invite me to the cinema booth - we’ll have a drink, we’ll sit, he told me how he took the Reichstag, and even hoisted the banner. And I myself reached Lake Balaton...” (Quoted from: Gorbachev S. Berlin Marinesko). Berest lived modestly, but he never curried favor or groveled before anyone - such was his life credo. And because of him, Alexey Prokopievich got himself into a lot of problems. He often changed jobs - either he headed DOSAAF in the Proletarsky district, then he was deputy director of MTS in the Oryol district, and in the Neklinovsky district he headed the film department.

But the character was iron, and time was tough. He made enemies or something else happened, but soon Berest was arrested. It is quite possible that the role that he persistently tried to achieve the truth and tell about his participation in hoisting the red flag on the Reichstag played a role here. In February 1953, when Berest was arrested, during interrogation at the prosecutor's office, the investigator provoked him into a fight. Berest was sentenced to ten years in prison for theft, although seventeen people confirmed his non-involvement in the incriminated act. It’s good that the term was reduced due to the amnesty - half as much. Berest served his sentence due to fate and returned to the Rostov region. Of course, there could no longer be any talk of any leadership work. The Berest family settled in Rostov-on-Don - in the village of Frunze. This is a small microdistrict of “private” and two-story buildings on the border of Aleksandrovskaya Grove on one side and Kiziterinovskaya Balka on the other side - a typical working-class village. Workers from Rostov factories lived here. Alexey Berest also got a job at the plant. The war hero worked as a loader at the third mill, a filler at the Prodmash plant, then got a job as a sandblaster in the steel foundry shop of the Rostselmash plant.

The Berest family lived in a two-story house, on the first floor. Birch bark was well known and loved both at the factory and in the village. The hero’s daughter, Irina Alekseevna, speaks of the great human kindness of her father Alexei Prokopyevich Berest: “Like all powerful people, my father was very kind - to the point of naivety. They have a new mechanic in their brigade - a soldier from the army. The bride is pregnant, but he won’t get married: “There’s nowhere to live.” Father settled them, young, in our room and registered them. The guy was bad when he drank, but his father pitied him. They had a girl. They lived with us for 4 years. Then they disappeared, and suddenly a family came to our apartment - from Sverdlovsk. It turns out that our guy quietly exchanged our room for an apartment in Sverdlovsk. We now have four neighbors. But the father became friends with this family too” (Quoted from: Gorbachev S. Berlin Marinesko).
On November 3, 1970, Alexey Prokopyevich Berest died tragically. He died, as befits a true hero, having accomplished a feat. He was standing with his grandson in his arms when the cry of “Train!” was heard. There was a child on the rails - a girl. None of the eyewitnesses even had time to notice how Alexey Prokopievich threw his grandson to the ground and rushed to his certain death. He pushed the girl out of the way and took a blow of such force that he was thrown far onto the platform. Alexey Prokopyevich Berest died in the hospital, he was only forty-nine years old. Of course, this physically strong man would have lived much longer and, who knows, maybe he would have caught up with modern times, but being a hero and performing feats, apparently, was in Berest’s family - that’s why he could not hesitate, then throwing himself after the child in front of a moving train .

Before last days In his life, Alexey Berest was very worried about the fact that the state never recognized his actual military merits, moreover, it greatly offended him by hiding him in the “zone” for years on trumped-up and ridiculous charges. Berest’s daughter Irina Alekseevna recalled: “In the sixties, Neustroyev (the same battalion commander with whom Berest participated in negotiations with the Germans, playing the role of a colonel - I.P.) came to us several times: “Why are you living in a communal apartment?” , in such bestial conditions? Not so much with regret, but with some feeling of... complacency, or something: “Don’t you even have a phone?” And when they drink, Neustroyev takes off his Gold Star and hands it to his father: “Lesha, here it is, it’s yours.” The father replies: “Well, that’s enough...”. It was unpleasant and painful for my father. He suffered for the rest of his life. When military holidays or parades were shown on TV, he turned it off (Quoted from: Gorbachev S. Berlin Marinesko)).
Buried a real hero at the small Alexandrovsky cemetery (former cemetery of the village of Alexandrovskaya, which is now part of the Proletarsky district of Rostov-on-Don). IN Soviet time At his grave, veterans were accepted into pioneers, they carried flowers on Victory Day and held various meetings. In the 1990s, a time of general devastation - in the country and in the minds, which also manifested itself in the crappy behavior of young people, on the bust installed above the grave, vandals knocked off either an ear or a nose, checking whether it was made of non-ferrous metal. And today, although his grave has been removed, it still leaves a depressing impression, since it is located at the entrance to cemeteries where garbage from other graves is taken away.
On May 6, 2005, for military courage in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, personal courage and heroism shown in the Berlin operation and hoisting the Victory Banner over the Reichstag, by decree of the President of Ukraine No. 753/2005, Alexey Prokopyevich Berest was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine (posthumously) . It turns out that the memory of a real hero and Russian person was more revered in Ukraine than in Russia, to whose service Berest gave best years He gave his life heroically, and died heroically, saving a child from under a train.
Why did Berest’s merits remain unrecognized by the high title of Hero in the Soviet Union and then in Russia? It is unlikely that anyone will be able to answer this question. Public organizations and veterans repeatedly sent letters to Moscow with a request to award the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and then Hero of the Russian Federation, to Alexei Prokopievich Berest. However, every time they received refusals. Moreover, almost every native resident in Rostov-on-Don knew that it was Berest who hoisted the red banner on the Reichstag. After all, on the territory of the Rostselmash plant a bust of memory was erected to him; Berest was constantly remembered on Victory Day, veterans said. However, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was still awarded to Berest - only by a socio-political organization called the “Permanent Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR” (leader - Sazhi Umalatova).
The name Beresta is included in the number of registered “stars” on Rostov’s Avenue of Stars. Also, one of the streets in the Selmash microdistrict of the Pervomaisky district of Rostov-on-Don bears the name Berest and comprehensive school No. 7 of the same city. And yet, the residents of Rostov, like other people who are not indifferent to the fate of this amazing man, a real hero, continue to hope that someday Russian government will condescend to appreciate the merits of Alexei Prokopievich Berest, and will posthumously award him the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.

On April 25, 1945, Soviet troops surrounded Berlin. Units of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front fought their way to the city center with heavy fighting and on the night of April 29 finally reached the Reichstag building. Units of the 150th Division were entrenched in the building of the former Ministry of the Interior, the so-called “Himmler House”. And already early in the morning of April 30, the soldiers received an order to take the Reichstag. After artillery barrage, under a continuous hail of bullets, Red Army soldiers rushed to storm the building of the former German parliament.

Each of the fighters then dreamed of hoisting a red banner on the Reichstag. In addition, at the front they knew about Marshal Zhukov’s promise - the first one to do this would receive the Hero of the Soviet Union. The 19-year-old Vyatka boy Grisha Bulatov also knew about this. True, he did not fight for titles and awards...

Grisha's father died in the first days of the war, and the guy was eager to go to the front - to take revenge on his enemies for his death. Grisha could not volunteer, since he was only allowed to go to the front at the age of 18. And Bulatov was barely 17. To get to the front line, the guy came up with a cunning plan. He made his way as part of the guard onto the train accompanying the front-line cargo. So the guy ended up in the reconnaissance platoon of the 150th Infantry Division. At the age of 18, Grisha Bulatov already had several feats to his name, for which he was awarded 2 medals “For Courage” and the Soldier’s Order of Glory. And in April 1945, Grisha’s dream came true - he reached Berlin.

Having tied himself with a homemade red banner, Grigory Bulatov rushed to the German parliament. He had to run 200 meters through a deadly barrage of fire. By some miracle the guy remained alive. He was the first to climb onto the roof of the Reichstag and hoist his flag.

This happened at 14:25 on April 30, 1945. Grigory Bulatov himself strengthened the flagpole. The military newsreel footage shows exactly the same German feather bed cover that Grisha Bulatov carried through the bullets, hoisting his homemade banner over the Reichstag...

On May 3, a note “They distinguished themselves in battle” appeared in the division newspaper. It was written in it that the Red Army soldier Grigory Bulatov was the first to hoist the victory banner. And the Motherland will not forget his feat! On the same day, the commander of the regiment in which Grigory served nominated Bulatov for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. IN brief description combat feat is indicated: “Having made his way to the upper floors, Comrade Bulatov in a group of scouts at 14:25 hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag.”

However, when Gregory was already “twisting a hole” in the jacket for the Hero’s star, the application for him was rejected. And in return, Bulatov received the Order of the Red Banner. High military award. But not the same as the title of Hero.

But what happened? It turns out that Grisha did not have the right to be the first to hoist his homemade flag. Special people were appointed for this purpose. As early as April 29, the army’s political department was preparing official banner groups. There were 9 banners - according to the number of formations of the 3rd Shock Army. All are numbered. One of these banners was received by the scouts Egorov and Kantaria. They were supposed to storm the Reichstag as part of their unit.

The group of Egorov and Kantaria managed to break into the Reichstag only in the evening. They were able to install the numbered banner they were given on the dome already after dark—at 10 p.m. That is, seven and a half hours after Grigory Bulatov. And yet, it was they who went down in history as the heroes who hoisted the banner of victory over the Reichstag.

Egorov and Kantaria received fame and honor, but the fate of the failed Hero Grigory Bulatov was tragic. In June 1945, he was taken to the Kremlin to Stalin’s office. It is not known exactly what the generalissimo talked about with private Bulatov... Bulatov later claimed that at that meeting Stalin convinced him to forget about the feat for 20 years. After which he promised to assign the Hero Star. However, immediately after this conversation, Bulatov ended up in a colony. Historians believe the case against him was fabricated.

Bulatov returned from prison in 1949 - a completely different person. ... The most tragic thing is that no one believed that it was he who hoisted the banner over the Reichstag. The former intelligence officer was never able to return to normal life. He started drinking, and after a while... he ended up in prison again. There he decided that since they didn’t believe him, he would assert his truth in his own way. So, in the zone Bulatov got this tattoo for himself - Grishka-Reichstag.

For 20 years Grishka the Reichstag tried to prove that he was worthy of the title of hero. On April 19, 1973, at the age of 48, he committed suicide. True, acquaintances claim that 2 days before his death, some people from Moscow came to the front-line soldier who wanted to confiscate photographs and letters proving his involvement in raising the flag over the Reichstag. It’s hard to say what exactly they talked about. But he was soon found hanged.

Several years ago, fellow countrymen recognized the feat of Grishka-Reichstag. The remains of Grigory Bulatov were solemnly reburied from an old, abandoned grave to a new place. One of the streets of his hometown Slobodskaya Kirov region named after him. And although Grigory Bulatov was denied the posthumous title of Hero of the Soviet Union, fellow countrymen believe that here lies a real hero - a simple guy Grishka-Reichstag, who was the first to hoist the banner of victory.

The country is preparing to celebrate Victory Day. However, the debate still continues as to who actually hoisted the red banner over the Reichstag. In Pskov they are convinced that it was Mikhail Minin, whose feat remained unappreciated. Maybe that’s why every year on April 30 the city celebrates his memory.

The regional council of war and labor veterans is absolutely convinced that glory bypassed Minin, although by right it should have belonged to him. Since Soviet times, official history continues to name the names of Sergeant Mikhail Egorov (Russian, communist) and Junior Sergeant Meliton Kantaria (Georgian, non-partisan), who hoisted the banner of the 150th Idritsa Rifle Division over the Reichstag. At the same time, evidence has been preserved that they themselves later admitted: they delivered their banner (and there were several of them!) to the Reichstag much later than other banner bearers.

This fact was also stated by specialists from the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, where they documented that the first to hoist the Victory Banner over the Reichstag on April 30, 1945 was the group of Captain Makov. It included Mikhail Minin. It all happened on April 30, 1945. For this feat and a number of other military merits, Mikhail Minin was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, while the award sheet was dated May 1, 1945, but the command was limited to the Order of the Red Banner (05/18/1945).

Throughout the day and evening of April 30, Soviet units repeatedly tried to break through enemy defenses, but to no avail. We were four hundred meters from the Reichstag, in Himmler’s house, when on April 30 in the middle of the day we received a message about the presence of order No. 06 for the 1st Belorussian Front to take Soviet troops Reichstag April 30, 1945 at 14:25 minutes. In fact, during the day and evening of April 30, there was not a single Soviet soldier in the Reichstag. On April 30, at 21:30, artillery preparation for the attack began. The assault took place at night, when the silhouette of a person could not be seen ten meters away... The attack was carried out almost blindly without the support of tanks and artillery escort... V.N. Makov’s group, as the most organized unit, was the first to reach the front entrance, using a log to break open the lock of the front door with a ramming blow , and was the first to break into the Reichstag. Making our way with machine gun fire and grenades, we managed to quickly reach the attic, find a giant cargo winch with the help of a flashlight, use it to climb to the roof and here on April 30, 1945 at 22:40, hoist the first banner, about which V.N. Makov immediately announced radio reported to the command post to the commander of the 79th Corps. At four o'clock in the morning on May 1, Egorov and Kantaria were brought to the Reichstag with their banners covered...

Deputies of the Pskov Regional Assembly tried to correct historical justice. So, in May 2005, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Victory Day, a proposal was included in the agenda of one of the sessions to appeal to the then governor Mikhail Kuznetsov with a request to submit to the President of the Russian Federation a proposal to award the title of Hero of the Russian Federation to the entire assault group that hoisted the banner over Reichstag. There was also the name of Pskov resident Mikhail Petrovich Minin. However, the answer that came from the Ministry of Defense was disappointing. It said that Mikhail Minin had already been awarded for his feat, and this could not be done twice.

I don’t need to prove once again that Mikhail Petrovich Minin was and remains our national hero. It also does not require proof that he was in fact the first to hoist the Victory flag over the Reichstag. In memory of this legendary man, veterans and representatives of patriotic associations gather at his grave every year. In city schools, lessons on courage are held dedicated to his feat. There is a memorial plaque installed on the house where he lived, but I strongly do not support the idea of ​​​​reburying the ashes of the hero in the center of Pskov, on the Square of the Victims of the Revolution. Let him sleep peacefully, our task is to preserve a worthy memory of him.

In this regard, the question arises: why, then, in all official obituaries dedicated to the memory of Mikhail Minin, he is invariably considered a Hero of the Soviet Union? The SmartNews correspondent received the answer to this sensitive question from the Pskov Regional Council of War and Labor Veterans. According to Deputy Chairman of the Council Nikolai Gorbachev, several years ago, by decree of the well-known Sazha Umalatova, chairman of the unregistered (!) organization “Permanent Presidium of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR,” Mikhail Minin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

It is clear that this award does not have official status. Although I personally am convinced that Mikhail Petrovich was worthy of her without any reservations. It is clear that he could not enjoy any benefits as a Hero of the Soviet Union. When Mikhail Petrovich died, I suggested burying the hero in the center of Pskov, near the monument to the victims of the revolution. In the end, Mikhail Egorov found his last refuge in the very center of Smolensk, near the Kremlin wall, as befits a national hero. Mikhail Petrovich was worthy of no less honor, but the city authorities did not heed the call of the veterans. Now I can only regret it...

In addition to the above, it should be noted that several years ago the Ministry of Justice issued a warning to Ms. Umalatova “in connection with the unlawful issuance of orders and medals established by her with symbols former USSR" This was done due to the fact that on July 1, 2002, a new Code of Administrative Offenses came into force, which provided for responsibility for the establishment and production of signs that have an external resemblance to state awards of the Russian Federation, the RSFSR and the USSR.

Expert opinion

senior Researcher Pskov Museum-Reserve, SmartNews

— The example of Mikhail Petrovich Minin clearly shows how cruel and unfair fate can sometimes be to true heroes. In all historical documents of that time, and later encyclopedias, it is unequivocally confirmed that it was he, as part of Captain Makov’s group, who was the first to climb to the roof of the Reichstag and hoist the Victory Banner. Moreover, the official nominations of all five for the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union have been preserved in the archives. They are dated May 1, 1945. I would like to draw your attention to the following detail: Egorov and Kantaria were awarded this title only in 1946. After the death of Mikhail Petrovich, his entire archive was transferred to the museum. Minin was a meticulous person and all his life he collected documents and memories of eyewitnesses that confirmed the priority of Captain Makov’s group. On the other hand, if we accept this fact, then what about the officially recognized symbols of Victory? Does this mean that the banner of the 150th Idritsa Division does not correspond to its status? It seems to me that it is the duty of Pskov residents to perpetuate the name of the hero, at least in the name of the street on which he lived. The initiative group has already made such a request to the city authorities, but this request, alas, was never heard.

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Mikhail Petrovich Minin (07/29/1922-01/10/2008), a native of the Palkinsky district of the Pskov region, went to the front in July 1941. He fought on the Leningrad Front and was wounded. After hospitalization, he continued to serve in the artillery reconnaissance division. Traveled from Leningrad to Berlin. In 1945, he took part in the capture of the Reichstag and, together with his comrades, hoisted the Victory Banner on it. There is still a record of this on the walls of the Reichstag. historical event: “Assault group of Captain V.N. Makov, April 30, 1945.” There are five names on the list of fighters: Makov, Zagitov, Lisimenko, Bobrov and Minin. In 1959 he graduated from the Kuibyshev Military Academy. Served in missile forces strategic purpose. In 1969 he was demobilized due to illness. Since 1977 he lived in Pskov. Awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Patriotic War, the Red Star, and medals. In 2005, by decision of the City Duma, he was awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of Pskov.” Retired Lieutenant Colonel. He was buried in the city cemetery. Author of the book “Difficult Roads of Victory.”

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to upload all the photos of the real hero Grisha Bulatov, who was the first to hoist the banner

above Reichstag and to which this article is dedicated, so I refer readers to the source

Who was the first to hoist the banner over the Reichstag http://best.kp.ru/kirov/reichstag/ I really hope thatafter seventy yearshistorical truth will triumph and the reward will find its hero.

Officially, all textbooks on the history of the Fatherland of Russia in the 20th century say that Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria were the first to hoist the Victory Banner over the Reichstag. Russian and Georgian. This happened at about 3:00 o'clock on May 1, 1945.

But Meliton Kantaria himself, 46 years later, answering a question from a journalist from the newspaper “Veteran” (1991, No. 6 (214), told a completely different story.

“On April 30, we saw the Reichstag in front of us - a huge gloomy building with dirty gray columns and a dome on the roof. The first group of our intelligence officers burst into the Reichstag: V. Provotorov, G. Bulatov. They fixed the flag on the pediment. The flag was immediately noticed by soldiers lying under enemy fire in the square.”

MELITO KANTARIA

Jr. Red Army Sergeant,
Hero of the Soviet Union.

That is, already on April 30 the banner was flying over the Reichstag. This means that it was not Yegorov and Kantaria who hoisted the first banner.

In addition to Kantaria's memories, there are other confirmations of this fact. Let's look at the most reasonable ones.

FACTS KNOW EVERYTHING

The Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in response to a request about who was the first to hoist the banner over the Reichstag, sent a response (June 19, 2005, No. 247443):

«... VEach of the armies advancing on Berlin was preparing one red banner to hoist over the Reichstag building. In the 3rd Shock Army on April 22, 1945, 9 such banners were prepared (according to the number included innot divisions). Red banners, flags and pennants were present in all assault groups that went into battle with the main task of breaking into the Reichstag and installing them on the building. In total, about 40 flags were raised over the Reichstag. In this regard, and for a number of other reasons, the question of who was the first to accomplish this feat still remains debatable».

This means that even the Ministry of Defense does not claim that Egorov and Kantaria were the first, and they do not rule out that someone else could have been the first.

In May 1945, about 30 award sheets were signed for nomination to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union specifically for hoisting the Victory Banner over the Reichstag. Including the soldiers of the reconnaissance group of Lieutenant Semyon Sorokin, which included senior sergeant V.N. Provotorov (platoon party organizer), senior sergeant I.N. Lysenko, privates G.P. Bulatov, S.G. Oreshko, P.D. Bryukhovetsky, M. A. Pachkovsky, M. S. Gabidullin, N. Sankin and P. Dolgikh.

In a document such as the “Award List” there is a column “A brief, specific statement of personal military feat or merit.”

The award list of Private Grigory Petrovich Bulatov describes his feat as follows:

On April 30, 1945, the All-Union radio reported that in 14 hours 25 minutes The Victory Banner was hoisted over the Reichstag.

Later, this message will be called “untrue”, and it will not go down in history.

We have all seen newsreel footage in which cameraman Roman Karmen captured several Red Army soldiers running into the Reichstag. In the hands of one is a banner. They climb up and secure the flag. Every year on May 9, these images are shown on all channels in the country. And they talk about the feat of the Red Army soldiers, naming the names of Egorov and Kantaria. But the newsreels show other people! The banner is carried by Red Army soldier Grigory Bulatov, and next to him is Lieutenant Semyon Sorokin.

It is important that this moment was filmed only on May 2. Roman Carmen himself, in a television program dated May 3, 1945, says that it was these people who were the first to hoist the banner:

« ... Lieutenant Sorokin, together with private Grigory Bulatov, on April 30, under hurricane fire from the Germans, climbed onto the roof of the Reichstag and hoisted the banner.”

ROMAN CARMEN

Soviet cinematographer, documentary filmmaker, front-line cameraman, teacher, professor.

So, among the heroes of Carmen’s shooting were participants in the real hoisting of banners in different places of the Reichstag: Grigory Bulatov, Semyon Sorokin, Rakhimzhan Koshkarbaev, Stepan Neustroyev (commander of the group that included Egorov and Kantaria). But if the first two were from one assault group, then the second were from another. How could this happen? After all, people from different groups couldn’t climb the dome at the same time? The fact is that Carmen arrived at the Reichstag for filming on May 2 and asked: “Who was first?” Everyone pointed to young Grisha Bulatov. Carmen called Bulatov for filming, and his commander Sorokin and several other people from another group went with him.

By the way, there is no video at all showing Yegorov and Kantaria hoisting the banner. After the war, Berlin was divided, and the part where the Reichstag was located became the British occupation zone. Therefore, they were no longer able to take staged shots after the war. Later, all the inconvenient shots with portraits of Bulatov and Sorokin were cut out from Carmen’s newsreel. The moment a person places a flag on a flagpole lasts only a second. But even in this second you can see: Bulatov is in the frame.

All photographs of the hoisting of the banner are also staged. They were taken on May 2 and later. But the famous photo taken by A. Kapustyansky on May 2, 1945, called “Flag Bearers at the Walls of the Reichstag,” depicts not Egorov and Kantaria, but soldiers of Lieutenant Semyon Sorokin’s reconnaissance group. In the foreground is young Grigory Bulatov, next to him is Semyon Sorokin. By the way, it was this photo that Zhukov placed on the cover of the book of his memoirs “The Reichstag was taken!” The book was published in 1969. This photo was no longer used in all subsequent editions of the memoirs.

And it was also the soldiers of Sorokin’s group who were captured in the photograph “Salute to Victory on the pediment of the Reichstag,” which was taken on May 3 by Ivan Shagin.

Standard bearers at the walls of the Reichstag

Salute to Victory on the Reichstag pediment

There are published memoirs by Semyon Sorokin and Viktor Provotorov that it was on April 30 that the first red banner was hoisted on the Reichstag. And Grigory Bulatov carried this banner. The phonogram from the interview with Semyon Sorokin is kept in the MAI Museum.

Sorokin says that when their reconnaissance group hoisted the banner, he reported this to the commanders, and journalists swooped in:

“Photographer Ryumkin and cameraman Carmen came to us on May 2 and asked: who erected it? Let's go film. And Egorov and Kantaria did not go, they immediately said - we are not the first.”

SEMYON SOROKIN

Platoon commander, lieutenant.

This same Neustroev was part of a group with Egorov and Kantaria. So it turned out that in all the photos and videos they were ordinary soldiers, with Lieutenant Sorokin in the rank of private. And here the captain stands next to him: with regalia and shoulder straps. And for the journalists who rushed to the place, the information was given as follows: here is Captain Neustroyev, and these are the soldiers of his group, and it was they who hoisted the banner. Although Neustroev had nothing to do with Sorokin’s group. This is where the big lie about a great feat begins!

A Red Army soldier leaves an autograph on a Reichstag column

FROM HEROIC HEIGHTS TO CRIMINALS

And so, when the ardor from the rapid assault on the Reichstag subsided, almost 30 award sheets fell on Zhukov’s desk for awarding the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for hoisting the banner. Why so much? In total, on April 30 and on the night of May 1, during the assault, four banner groups visited the roof of the Reichstag, four banners were secured: the first were Sorokin’s scouts, the last, late at night, were the fighters, including Egorov and Kantaria.

But Zhukov makes a decision - to postpone assigning the title to everyone! Why? Today we can only guess, for example, that grand marshal knew how to spell soviet history: the main thing in it is ideology, not facts.

And this story was written like this (Bulatov himself told his childhood friend Viktor Shuklin about this): in mid-May, Marshal Zhukov, together with the participants in the Berlin operation, those who were the first to storm the Reichstag, arrived in the Kremlin. There was an official part. There was also a one-on-one conversation. Bulatov recalled that Stalin shook his hand and congratulated him. He was in good spirits. And then he calmly explained that the Hero would be given only after 20 years.

STALIN

I cannot assign the title of Hero. Yegorov and Kantaria will hoist the banner. But you will not be forgotten: you will be considered to have stormed the Reichstag and even planted one of the flags on the lower floors. All this is temporary. In 20 years you will receive the title of Hero

Young Grishka, who was then only 19 years old, could not object to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

That same evening, Bulatov was taken from the Kremlin to Beria’s dacha. Here a dirty scene was played out: a waitress was sent to the boy, and she accused Grishka of rape. The guy immediately ended up in a criminal cell. All. History has been written. There are a few steps left: to choose from the 30 people who actually participated in the storming of the Reichstag the most ideologically consistent and hand over to them the banner that was preserved after the hoisting. By the first anniversary of the Victory, this task was resolved: on May 8, 1946, five people received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for hoisting the Banner over the Reichstag: Neustroev, Samsonov, Davydov, Egorov and Kantaria. From this moment on, they are officially considered to be the ones who hoisted the banner.

BULATOV KEEPED YOUR WORD
STALIN - NO

Bulatov returned to Slobodskaya in 1949. A criminal, who will believe him? He didn't even try. Of course, they knew that he took Berlin, that he stormed the Reichstag, they knew. At city meetings he was always thanked for his service and exploits at the front. But Bulatov remained silent for 20 years, as he promised, that it was he who hoisted the Victory Banner. Waited. I hoped. But during this time, the history of the country had already been written, it was studied in school: the soldiers of Neustroev’s group published their memoirs, but there were no others. Archival records have been cleared. The same video recording of the hoisting of the banner, filmed by Carmen, was shown every year on the next anniversary of the Victory. Bulatov watched it: now the soldiers of his group are running into the building, now you can see his back - he is carrying a flag. A close-up of the hands - his hands - securing the banner. And the voice-over blatantly lies: the group of captain Neustroev, Egorov and Kantaria. Try to bear it. And he started drinking.

But in the 60s, memoirs of soldiers from Sorokin’s group began to be published here and there. So, on April 30, 1961 in “ Komsomolskaya Pravda"(No. 102) published a story about the capture of the Reichstag. Here are the memories of the participants in the battle on April 30, 1945, there are the words of Rakhimzhan Koshkarbaev: “Major Davydov handed me a red flag. A group of scouts was supposed to accompany me. I looked around, next to me was Grigory Bulatov...”

It was in the 60s, after so many years, that Sorokin’s scouts found each other, signed off, and united. And they began to try to prove the truth. They wrote to the Central Committee, they wrote to Brezhnev.

It's 1965. 20 years have passed. But the oblivion did not end. No one was going to rewrite history and admit that people had been lied to for so many years. And Gregory, under pressure from his colleagues who insisted that the time had come to tell the truth, broke through: he gave the writer Ardyshev three notebooks - common school notebooks - with his notes. These notebooks contained his correspondence with Zhukov and Carmen. This notebook also contained a photograph of Zhukov with his signature: “In memory of the hero of the Reichstag.” Bulatov goes to the city committee of the CPSU to prove this very truth. At this time, the nickname “Grishka-Reichstag” was forever stuck to him.

Little Grigory Bulatov in the top row 4th from left

BuBulatov after the war

The main thing during the hoisting of the Victory Banner over the Reichstag was not Kantaria and Egorov, but Lieutenant Berest, who was ordered to be forgotten

The red banner of Military Council No. 5, which became known as the Victory Banner, flew over the Reichstag just before midnight on April 30, 1945. The commander of the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division, Colonel Fedor Zinchenko, appointed commandant of the Reichstag, appointed scouts Sergeant Mikhail Egorov and Junior Sergeant Meliton Kantaria as standard bearers. They were brought to the fascists’ lair a few hours later, when the units that stormed it burst into the building. The standard bearers were unable to complete the task on their own. Lieutenant Aleksei Berest led them to the roof of the Reichstag and covered them with fire. The three of them saluted from the top of the dome to the Motherland about the victory over fascism. Beneath the three of them lay defeated Berlin...

And if the scouts soon became Heroes of the Soviet Union, then Alexei Berest received only the Order of the Red Banner. His name was forgotten due to the pride of strong men, the struggle for glory, intentional and accidental historical mistakes.

His fellow countryman, retired Colonel Yuri Galkin, who worked for many years in the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate, decided to tell the truth about Alyosha Berest and his tragic fate on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the Victory. General Staff and in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

Having once arrived at my homeland in the village of Sinyavskoye, located between Rostov-on-Don and Taganrog, I became interested in the fate of my fellow countryman, Alexei Berest, on whose grave was laconically inscribed: “Participant in the storming of the Reichstag.”

It was known that Alyosha was left an orphan at the age of 12, was a homeless child for a long time, and lived in an orphanage. Having completed seven classes high school, worked as a tractor driver. After serving in the army, he went straight to the war with the Finns. At the very height of the Great Patriotic War, a tall, smart boy was sent to the Leningrad Red Banner Military-Political School. After completing the accelerated course, Alexey found himself in the thick of battle: he was appointed deputy commander for political affairs of the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Shock Army of the First Belarusian Front.

Nature did not offend Alexey: he stood 2 meters tall, was broad-shouldered, fit, and imperturbable. At the same time, he had heroic strength, easily lifted two Krauts and pushed them together with their foreheads. In battle, he invariably found himself in the first echelon, acting as a real commander.

…Berlin operation began on April 16, 1945 and, according to the plan, was supposed to end on April 25, but it lasted for two weeks.

The 150th Infantry Division, where Berest fought, fought the hardest street battles in Berlin, moving two to three kilometers a day towards the city center. The buildings and streets were adapted by the Germans for defense. Snipers and machine gunners were located in the upper floors of the houses.

The directive of the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army ordered to speed up the capture of the Reichstag. It was specially stipulated that the commander of the unit, the unit that would be the first to hoist the banner over the Reichstag, would be nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. It was also indicated that this information should be conveyed to every warrior.

The first mention of the Victory Banner dates back to November 6, 1944. It was on this day that Stalin, at a ceremonial meeting of the Moscow City Council, called on Soviet soldiers: “Finish off the fascist beast in his own lair and hoist the Victory Banner over Berlin.”

On April 16, 1945, a meeting of the heads of political departments of all armies of the 1st Belorussian Front took place on the question of how to carry out Stalin’s instructions. Where and on what object should the Victory Banner be hoisted? Zhukov, judging that this was a political issue, turned to the Main Political Directorate. The answer was received - over the Reichstag!

The 3rd Shock Army had a better chance of being the first to approach the Reichstag. Nine banners were made - according to the number of formations in the army. The banner in size and shape resembled the State Flag of the USSR.

On the night of April 22, on behalf of the Military Council of the Army, the banners were distributed among the formations. Banner No. 5 was received by the commander of the 150th Infantry Division, Major General Shatilov.

The assaulting units did not suspect that only the banners of the Military Council would be taken into account. All this subsequently turned into great confusion, an avalanche of falsifications, and disappointed hopes.

The capture of the Reichstag was reported in advance

The Reichstag was prepared for a perimeter defense. The windows are bricked up, leaving small embrasures and loopholes.

On April 30, before dawn, the Reichstag was stormed by three hastily completed battalions advanced to the first echelon. In the center, in the direction from “Himmler’s house,” the battalions of the 150th Infantry Division of Neustroev and Davydov operated. At the junction between them was Makov’s group. To the left, from the side of the Swiss embassy, ​​is a battalion from the 171st Infantry Division of Colonel Negoda, commanded by Senior Lieutenant Samsonov. The second assault group of Major Bondar was also located here.

Two attacks were repulsed due to heavy fire. But in the middle of the day on April 30, 1945, the headquarters of the 1st Belorussian Front received a message that the Reichstag had been captured, and the red banner was on it. The report on the capture of the Reichstag quickly reached Moscow. Stalin's congratulations came from it.

The Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front issued order No. 06 - congratulations. It said: “The troops of the 3rd Shock Army of Colonel General Kuznetsov occupied the Reichstag building and today, April 30, 1945, at 14:25, they raised the Soviet flag on it.”

At this time there was not a single Soviet soldier in the Reichstag. The assault battalions, pinned to the ground by a dense enemy fire curtain, were located on Royal Square, two hundred meters from the building. The commander of the 150th Infantry Division, Major General Shatilov, gave out wishful thinking.

When the command of the 150th Division understood the situation and realized that the Reichstag had not been taken and there was no victory flag on it, it was difficult to change anything.
In his documentary story, Neustroyev recalls: “General Shatilov called my command post and ordered the phone to be handed over to the regiment commander. He demanded from Zinchenko: “Take measures to hoist a flag, or at least a flag, on the column of the front entrance at any cost.”

The assaulters had a real chance to approach and break into the Reichstag only after darkness fell. A thirty-minute artillery barrage began at 21.30 local time, and at 22.00 the assault on the Reichstag resumed.

Makovites were among the first to run up to the front entrance. The massive door was locked. A platoon of soldiers gathered near her. The soldiers rammed the front door with a log. The assault group immediately rushed to seize the premises on the first floor and barricade the exits from the bunker. In the very difficult situation of the night battle and in a mixed composition, those commanders who were in the vanguard group took command. These were officers from the Neustroevsky battalion - chief of staff Gusev, political officer Berest, agitator of the political department of the 150th rifle division captain Matveev, as well as corps officer captain Makov. At their command, the fighters began throwing grenades at the corridors and exits from the dungeon.

Makov gave the command to senior communications officer Vladimir Minin to attach the banner of the 79th Rifle Corps to the roof of the Reichstag and gave seven infantrymen to help them. We reached the attic. We climbed out onto the roof through the dormer window and attached a banner to the tower. Then the banner was transferred to the sculptural group. These were volunteer fighters from the 136th artillery brigade: Zagitov, Bobrov, Lisimenko, Minin. The time was 22.30-22.40 local time. Makov went up to the banner and immediately reported by radio to the headquarters of the 79th Rifle Corps about the hoisting of the banner on the Reichstag. The report was witnessed by Neustroev, and the message was received by the head of the army's political department, Lisitsyn.

Senior communications officer Vladimir Minin invited corps headquarters officer Major Bondar to witness the hoisting of the first banner on the roof of the Reichstag. Having climbed to the roof, the fighters of Mikhail Bondar’s assault group secured their own flag at the back leg of the sculpture.

And at 11:30 p.m. the red banner was on western facade established by soldiers of the reconnaissance platoon of the 674th Infantry Regiment, led by Lieutenant Sorokin.

“Hoist the flag at any cost!”

Regimental reconnaissance officers Sergeant Yegorov and Junior Sergeant Kantaria should have been in combat formations at this time. But in fact, they remained at the observation post of the headquarters of the 756th Infantry Regiment, under the banner of the Military Council.

Long after midnight, during another lull, the commander of the 756th Infantry Regiment, Colonel Zinchenko, arrived. He ordered Neustroev to report the situation. The colonel was interested in the banner. Neustroyev reported that there were many banners: platoon, company, brigade, and corps flags were installed on the Reichstag in the location of their positions.

“I ask, where is the banner of the Army Military Council No. 5? I ordered the regiment’s intelligence chief, Captain Kondrashov, to have the banner go on the attack with the first company!” - Zinchenko said indignantly.

It turned out that the banner remained at the regimental headquarters, in “Himmler’s house.” Zinchenko called the regimental chief of staff Kazakov and ordered him to immediately organize the delivery of the banner to the Reichstag. He was delivered between three and four o'clock in the morning by scouts Egorov and Kantaria.

Regimental commander Fyodor Zinchenko gave them the task: “Immediately to the roof of the Reichstag and place banner No. 5 on it.” Twenty minutes later, Yegorov and Kantaria return with the banner. "What's the matter?" - Colonel Zinchenko asked angrily. “It’s dark there, we don’t have a flashlight, we didn’t find a way out to the roof,” Yegorov answered.

Zinchenko spoke angrily: “The Supreme Command of the Armed Forces of the USSR, on behalf of the Communist Party and the entire Soviet people, ordered us to hoist the Victory Banner over Berlin. This historical moment has come, and you haven’t found a way out to the roof!..”

The commander of the 756th Infantry Regiment Zinchenko ordered battalion commander Neustroev to ensure the hoisting of the Victory Banner over the Reichstag. Neustroev conveyed this order to his political commander, Lieutenant Alexei Berest, as he was absolutely sure that he would carry it out successfully.“

“I dragged the scouts onto the roof by the collar”

- Alexey Berest with a squad of submachine gunners Shcherbina, Egorov and Kantaria began to make their way to the Reichstag dome. Immediately on the second floor, machine gun fire and grenade explosions were heard. A fight ensued. Later, Alexey Berest recalled: “Due to artillery shelling, the staircase was destroyed in some places - we formed a living staircase.” At the bottom was the mighty Berest; one soldier stood on his shoulders. And on him - another. Alexei Berest literally carried Egorov and Kantaria onto the roof of the Reichstag on his shoulders. As the head of the operation, he was the first to go to the roof of the Reichstag to find out the situation and secure the installation of the banner. Only after this did he allow the scouts to climb the dome. After installing the Victory Banner, they saluted three times from the roof of the Reichstag about the completion of the honorable task.

When Berest returned and reported that the Victory Banner was installed in the most prominent place - on a bronze equestrian sculpture on the pediment of the main entrance, Neustroyev asked: “Won’t it come off?” - “It will stand for a hundred years, we tied the banner to the horse with straps.” - “How are the soldiers?” Laughs: “Nothing. I dragged them onto the roof by the collar.”

Like everyone in the Reichstag, Lieutenant Berest did not really understand the layout of the premises, especially in the dark. He took Yegorov and Kantaria to the roof of the Reichstag, but not to the western side, visible to the authorities from the Royal Square, where the flag hoisted by the Makovites was already flying. The Victory Banner was hoisted on the opposite - eastern side. There, too, a pediment rose above the entrance, and above it there was a sculpture of an equestrian knight - Kaiser Wilhelm. By the end of the next day, when the fire of enemy shells swept away from the western side many of the flags delivered here, including the one that the Makovites had hoisted, the banner of the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army remained unharmed.

The Reichstag was burning. The Germans rushed into a counterattack and used Faust cartridges. People's clothes were smoldering, their hair was burnt, they could not breathe from the smoke...

Colonel Zinchenko ordered to leave the building and, after it burned out from the inside, to attack again. But it was no longer possible to do this then. Part of the mouth was cut off by fire. You can't give an order. The front entrance was also under severe shelling.

In the burning halls, on the stairs and passages, a bloody oncoming battle began again. At the end of the night on May 1, Neustroev's scouts, inspecting the building, discovered a door in the wall on the first floor. The stairs went down. Having gone down it into the basement, the fighters found themselves in a large concrete hall. And then they came under machine-gun fire. Five soldiers were killed immediately, three miraculously managed to escape. Neustroev sent a new group of scouts to the bunker. They took prisoners.

From their story it became clear that under the Reichstag there are vast premises connected to each other by numerous tunnels and passages. More than 1,000 people took refuge in them, led by Lieutenant General, Commandant of the Reichstag.

Of the 450 soldiers in Neustroev's battalion, 180 were wounded or killed. The rest collapsed from fatigue.

Suddenly the enemy stopped firing. Soon, a white flag appeared from around the corner of the stairs leading into the dungeon. The Germans called for negotiations, but put forward a condition. Since a general will be conducting negotiations among them, there should also be a general or, in extreme cases, a colonel from the Soviet side. Moreover, he should have the authority of a front or army commander.

It was unrealistic to contact Zinchenko, or even more so with Shatilov, the commander of the 150th Infantry Division, to ask them to come to the Reichstag for negotiations when every meter of Royal Square was under fire, and the most senior in rank was Captain Neustroyev. The battalion commander suggested that the personable and stately Lieutenant Berest go to negotiations as a “colonel.”

There was no water to wash the soot off my face. But in one of the rooms the soldiers found several bottles of dry white wine. Having rinsed his face and neck with it, Alexey hastily shaved dry and put on a captured leather jacket covering his lieutenant's shoulder straps. The officer's cap was borrowed from the captain, political officer Matveev. So Alexey Berest became a temporary colonel, representative of the commander of the 3rd Shock Army, Colonel General Kuznetsov, in negotiations on the surrender of the Reichstag garrison. Neustroev himself decided to become an “adjutant.” He took off his quilted jacket so that his tunic with orders was visible. The “translator,” soldier Ivan Prygunov, was given the shoulder straps of a senior lieutenant.

The parliamentarians, going down to the basement of the Nazis, took a great risk. The Germans could shoot at any moment.

There were machine guns on the parapets, and submachine gunners were all around in full combat readiness. The colonel who met them said in broken Russian that the German command was ready to surrender, but on the condition that the Russian soldiers were withdrawn from their firing positions. Berest responded to this that if they want to stay alive, they must lay down their arms and go upstairs, go through our battle formations, as befits all prisoners of war, and at gunpoint. The Nazi tried to negotiate free passage to the Brandenburg Gate, but, unable to withstand Berest’s stern gaze, said that he would report these demands to the commandant general of the Reichstag garrison.

At the end of the conversation, the German general stated that they were not surrendering, and one of the parliamentarians should remain with them as a hostage. “Comrade Colonel! - Prygunov saluted. - Let me address you: I’m staying here...” Berest looked into the thin, pale face of the boy whom he had known for a little over a month. He, a fifteen-year-old boy, was taken by the Germans to work in Germany, he spent about three years in a concentration camp, was released, passed the SMERSH inspection, and was drafted into the army. And now, perhaps on the last day of the war, he voluntarily volunteered to remain in the clutches of the fascists.

Berest warned German general that he is responsible with his head for the life of Senior Lieutenant Prygunov.

The parliamentarians set off on their way back. Machine guns and machine guns looked at their backs. The road turned out to be long.

Already when they got out into the lobby, the German officer accompanying them shot Berest in the back, but missed. Alexei turned around with a jerk and unloaded his pistol at him.

By this time, other units had also broken through to the Reichstag. The Nazis threw out the white flag a second time and this time began to climb up in groups and surrender. The German colonel, who was the first to meet Berest in the dungeon, recognized him, approached him and laid his pistol at his feet, although at that moment he had the lieutenant's shoulder straps on his shoulders. The general in the black uniform was not visible. Vanya Prygunov also did not appear. Alexei asked the Germans coming out of the dungeon about him and threatened them. But no one knew about the fate of the Russian translator. Berest sent soldiers into the bunker. They searched all the nooks and crannies, but Vanya Prygunov was nowhere to be found.

On May 2, the German garrison of Berlin, led by its commandant General Weidling, capitulated.

“Take it, mother-in-law, son-in-law has arrived!”

After the war, Lieutenant Alexei Berest was appointed to the post of party organizer of the 303rd Corps Artillery Brigade.

From mid-April 1946, the time came to select candidates and present them for awarding the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for storming the Reichstag and hoisting the Victory Banner on it.

There were about 100 of them. Alexey Berest was among them. Moreover, due to negligence or ignorance, the compilers of the award list in the “military rank” section demoted Berest to junior lieutenant. The submission was signed by: August 3, 1946 - commander of the 756th Rifle Regiment, Colonel Zinchenko, August 5, 1946 - commander of the 150th Rifle Division, Major General Shatilov, August 7, 1946 - commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, Colonel General Cherevichenko, August 7, 1946 - head of the political department of the 79th Rifle Corps, Colonel Abashin.

However, Alexey Berest was deleted from the list. According to one version, by the hand of Marshal Zhukov himself, who did not like political workers.

According to another version, in “Himmler’s house” Berest clashed either with the Smershevites, or with officers from captured teams who were literally on the heels of the attacking formations. And the straightforward lieutenant, as they say, was “taken for a pencil.”

They started digging under Berest. So that he “would not speak out and would not have defenders,” they decided to declare him sick with a venereal disease and put him in a “special” hospital during the celebration of the first anniversary of the Victory.

The order to the troops of the 3rd Shock Army No. 209 dated April 23, 1946 states: “The political workers named below are relieved of their positions due to their departure for long-term treatment to a special hospital as a result of the venereal disease syphilis: “...2. Berest Alexey Prokopyevich - lieutenant, party organizer of the 652nd separate reconnaissance division of the 7th Rifle Corps.”

The head of the political department of the 303rd cavalry brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Rybin, responded to this telegram order on April 24, 1946 to the head of the political department of the 7th Rifle Corps, Colonel Bordovsky: “I report that the party organizer of the 652nd ord of the 303rd corps artillery brigade, Lieutenant Alexey Prokopievich Berest, suffered no venereal diseases during his service in the brigade. wasn't sick. While on vacation in January 1946, Berest fell ill with typhus, for which he was treated in a military hospital in the city of Rostov-on-Don. In the same hospital, Lieutenant Berest married a nurse, with whom he arrived at the unit and currently lives. Upon returning from the hospital, Lieutenant Berest presented a certificate from the military hospital stating that he was being treated for typhus.”

“My parents,” recalled Berest’s daughter, Irina Alekseevna, “met in the hospital where my father was admitted to the infectious diseases department. He was probably traveling from Ukraine, from Kharkov, and in Rostov he was taken off the train unconscious and diagnosed with typhoid fever. The hospital considered that this officer was no longer a resident and placed him in the death room. At night, from the cold, he regained consciousness and found himself lying among the dead. This was in November 1945. In the hospital, he fell in love with the nurse who was caring for his father, Evseeva Lyudmila Fedorovna, my mother. In January 1946 they got married. When my father came to my grandmother’s house, my mother’s mother, she exclaimed: “Lucy, there’s some military man walking around there!” - and went out to him. “Who do you want?” - “Take it, mother-in-law, son-in-law has arrived!” - “There are a lot of you like that walking around here!” - “Maybe there are many, but now I’m alone!” My father dearly loved his mother-in-law like a mother. After all, he was an orphan.”

“Dismissed for bigamy”

In June 1946, Alexei Berest was transferred to serve in the 31st Separate Guards Communications Battalion, then he went to the disposal of the political department of the Black Sea Fleet, and worked as deputy chief for the political department of the transmitting radio center of the communications center. Sailors are not very kind to land officers, but Berest was accepted.

Berest’s wife Lyudmila Fedorovna recalled: “Those were hungry and unsettled years. At first we rented a small room and had to do laundry in ice water. Finally, I prayed and asked them to dig a better dugout next to the unit! And Alexey took the sailors to help and built a dugout with two rooms and a stove in the middle. He installed light there and lined the walls with boards, which he and the sailors went to the neighboring part of the torpedo boats to steal. When it was time for me to give birth, he took me to the maternity hospital by car. I complained about shaking, and Alexey, having sent the car back to the unit, carried me in his arms for several kilometers to the maternity hospital!

In the unit where Berest served, the commander changed, and they did not get along in character. It all started because of a sailor who was constantly sleeping at his post. The commander decided to put him on trial at the tribunal. Berest replied that “it’s easiest to put a person in prison, but I’ll wean him off sleep.” He sneaked up once when a sailor was at the checkpoint and hit the sentry so that he flew away along with the booth. He never slept at his post again. Yes, Berest had heavy fists.”

Alexey Berest served in this center for about a year and a half and was dismissed “for bigamy,” as official documents say. The inquiry conducted on August 11, 1948 stated that Lieutenant Berest, being in a registered marriage with citizen Kotenko Elena Akimovna since 09/16/1939, without dissolving this marriage, entered into a second marriage with citizen Evseeva Lyudmila Fedorovna on 01/08/1946.

It was decided to put Berest on trial for the honor of junior officers at the Communications Department of the Black Sea Fleet. The commander wrote a service description of Berest: “...drinking with subordinates, borrowing money from subordinate elders, refusing to attend the University of Marxism-Leninism, there were cases when comrade. Berest showed dissatisfaction with economic difficulties.”

Despite the fact that the sailors loved Alexei Berest, family archive Many photographs have been preserved with the captions: “To our father,” the lieutenant was discharged from the Navy into the reserve.

Colleagues escorted the Berest family to railway station in Simferopol. They went to Lyudmila’s homeland, to her mother in the city of Rostov-on-Don.

In civilian life, Alexey Prokopievich worked as deputy director of a machine and tractor station, in 1952 he was appointed head of the Neklinovsky cinema department in the regional center, the village of Pokrovskoye, to which the Berest family moved.

Former police sergeant Peter Tsukanov recalled: “Our neighbor died. The Birch Barks settled in this hut with four children. The floor is earthen, the walls are adobe, the roof is reed, the windows are near the ground. We arrived - a suitcase and a bundle of linen.

I was the head of the bullpen. One day an investigator from the prosecutor’s office comes in: “Here is a man, and here is an arrest warrant.” I looked - my neighbor! “Alexey Prokopyevich, what is it?” - “Yes, here...” They searched him, and into the cell... It turned out that an inspector had come from Rostov. Secretly. In Sinyavka, during a film show, I discovered that there were more people in the theater than there were tickets sold. Showed up to Berest. “What are you doing behind my back? - Berest was indignant. “Yes, I would help you deal with the cashier myself.” The inspector behaved insolently and responded harshly. Berest, having flared up, lifted him by the chest and threw him out of the second floor. Along with the chair. He himself came to the police chief: “I just threw out the inspector.”

Berest was framed. The cashier of the Sinyavsky cultural club, Pilipenko, had stolen twice before Berest; she was rescued by the assistant district prosecutor Treskov, with whom they were drinking together. She had to be fired from her job. Now a new head of the cinema chain has come, and it has been restored again. The result of Pilipenko’s work: waste - 5,665 rubles. A criminal case was opened against Berest, Pilipenko and accountant Martynov.

Seventeen witnesses confirmed that Berest was not involved in the shortage. But on April 14, 1953 district court sentenced Berest “for theft” to ten years in prison. Based on the amnesty of March 27, 1953, the term was halved. He did not ask for mercy. Genet wrote in a letter from the Perm camps: “Ask from yourself. I can’t: I don’t plead guilty... This means that my fate was destined to sit in this hell and visit this criminal world... I have never knelt before anyone and will not.”

They didn’t want to register the wife of an “enemy of the people” in Rostov-on-Don, and without this they wouldn’t hire her anywhere. Reaching despair, Lyudmila Fedorovna with two hungry, crying children came to the passport office of the Internal Affairs Directorate, sat down in the hall and announced to the duty officer that she would not leave until the boss received her. She achieved her goal: the very next day there was a Rostov registration stamp.

Lyudmila Fedorovna got two jobs at once. On the first shift she worked as a nurse in a hospital, and on the second shift as an accountant at a brick factory. It was necessary to raise the children and send something in parcels to Alexey.

Alexei was released early - influential forces were found from among his former colleagues. He was completely rehabilitated, his criminal record was cleared and he was even reinstated in the party!

“He said what he thought, he acted as he saw fit”

Life has not broken Berest. As before, he said what he thought, acted as he saw fit. He worked as a loader at a mill, as a roller in a foundry at the Glavprodmash plant, at the Rostselmash plant as a sandblaster in a steel foundry.

“We lived in the village of Frunze, within the boundaries of Rostov, in a hut for two families. The house was built using the Gorky method, or, as they said then, “the bloody method,” recalled Irina Berest. - After the shift, my father worked at a house construction site, plowing hundreds of hours. The apartment was terrible - on the first floor of a two-story building. There was a boiler room under the apartment - noise from the engines, and most importantly, carbon monoxide was rising towards us.

In the sixties, Neustroev came to us several times: “Why are you living in a communal apartment, in such bestial conditions. Don’t you even have a phone?” And as soon as they drank, Neustroyev took off his Golden Star and handed it to his father: “Lesha, here it is, it’s yours.” The father replies: “Well, that’s enough...” It was unpleasant and painful for the father. He suffered until the end of his life because of the terrible injustice of the assessment of his feat by the Soviet authorities against the background of the “fabricated Heroes”: Egorov and Kantaria. When military holidays or parades were shown on TV, he turned it off.”

On November 3, 1970, Alexey was returning from work at a confectionery factory. I picked up my five-year-old grandson Alyosha from kindergarten. The Berests then lived on Rossiyskaya Street in the village of Ordzhonikidze. To catch the bus, you had to cross the railway tracks at the Selmash station. It was the end of the shift. People poured out of the factory entrance. A train was approaching the station, and a huge crowd of people rushed to the platform. Someone in the crowd pushed a little girl and she fell onto the tracks. And along a parallel track with bright headlights a fast Moscow-Baku train was rushing.

Berest, who was nearby, was the first to react. He pushed his grandson aside, and he rushed across the rails and snatched the girl, almost from under the wheels of the train. The child was saved. Alexey didn’t have enough of a split second to jump out himself. Lyudmila Fedorovna recalled that her husband was let down by the wide naval bell-bottoms with hard inserts that Alexey inserted for the style. It could have simply been thrown aside by the front flap of the locomotive, but the insert in the flares caught on some part. Alexei was hit hard by the locomotive and dragged forward before being thrown onto an embankment. He tried to sit up and said: “Alyosha!” That's the last thing he said.

Alyosha cried, shouted nearby: “Grandfather!..” - then alone, he found a bus stop and came home. “We were sitting, the door opened, Alyosha: “Mom, the train ran over grandpa,” recalled Irina Alekseevna. “My mother and I rushed to the hospital, the emergency room, on Kirovsky. The father was still alive, lying crucified under two IVs, his fists clenched, all white. I even tried to get up. If the ambulance had arrived not three hours later, but earlier, he could have been saved. Before our eyes they brought out a huge basin of blood. He died at four o'clock in the morning on November 4, 1970. It was snowing. He died, and the watch on his hand ticked loudly in silence, counting someone else's time. My father was 49 years old.

They refused to bury Berest in the fraternal cemetery in Rostov-on-Don. Moreover, this decision was made in fact high level. He was interred on the outskirts of Rostov-on-Don, in Aleksandrovka, in a neglected cemetery, where almost no one was buried even then. A street in the Pervomaisky district of Rostov was named after Alexey Berest, and a memorial plaque was installed on the building of the Rostselmash plant where he worked. And in front of the entrance to the steel foundry shop of the plant, a modest monument to Berest was created by the hands of the workers.

Later, a documentary was made about Alexey Berest. His daughter Irina Alekseevna recalled how she brought Lavrentyev’s painting about her father to Moscow. In the cinema, 4,000 people watched the film while standing, but the second part of the film was not allowed to be shown. In it, a German spoke about the Soviet lieutenant Berest. In Germany, when the battle was going on in the Reichstag, Alexey and a group of machine gunners broke through to the roof of the building. On one of the flights of stairs he saw three boys and an old man. They stood near a group of faustians. The soldier behind Berest wanted to shoot them, but Alexei stopped him. The old German began to explain Soviet soldiers that they didn't fire a single shot. He fell to his knees and began to beg for mercy. Berest gave the command “don’t shoot.” These grown up boys were found in Germany. With warm words they remembered the Soviet lieutenant who gave them life.

60 years after the Victory, in 2005, the President of Ukraine awarded Alexey Berest posthumously the title of Hero of Ukraine as a Ukrainian by nationality and born in the Luhansk region, in the Akhtyrsky district.

Retired Colonel Yuri Galkin hopes that the truth about his fellow countryman will reach the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev and he will make a historically fair decision to posthumously award Lieutenant Alexei Berest the high title of Hero of the Russian Federation.